Family Nature
by historylover
Summary: Tag for 6.1 "Exile on Main Street."


A/N: You guys spoil me. "Soup and Chocolate" garnered the most reviews I've ever had for a one-shot! Thank you so much for that! And, you guys actually make me think I can write! So, because of that, I'm trying again. Very, very short episode tag. My apologies in advance. It's rambly and stream-of-conscious.

Disclaimer: Don't own it. And, I wasn't that impressed with the premiere. So, I'm considering this an exercise of sorts. Remember: MST3K.

**Family Nature**

Dean watched Sam drive away, feeling like an internal war was going to tear him apart. He couldn't pin any one emotion down to define it. Sorrow, grief, fear, confusion. Anger. Feelings that he couldn't even name was dancing around in the pit of his stomach.

Sam had been back for an entire year. Bobby had known. Dean wanted to scream, punch something, just _act_. While he was a nervous, grieving, traumatic wreck, waking up in the middle of the night shivering and sweating, not being able to think about anything else other than Sam in Hell, Sam was out of Hell. Hunting, meeting up with family.

Family. His family.

Or so they claimed.

One thing Dean did feel that he did a good job with was his instincts about others. It had served him well while he was a hunter. He hoped he hadn't lost those instincts in the year he had been retired. (Although, he _had_ trusted that Sam was in Hell. And, although he hadn't talked to Bobby in a year, he _had _trusted that Bobby would at least let him know something big had come up. Literally.)

He didn't trust his cousins. Or whoever they claimed they were. Something about them rubbed him the wrong way. It wasn't anything he could put his finger on. After all, they were hunting royalty. He was just a distant cousin to them. An imposter in the court of a king.

It was strange that a family he didn't know had appeared, right when he was still getting over the Djinns' poison. He badly wanted a complete family. He thought maybe having one would make him feel like a complete person, instead of the maybe half waling around, half living this nice, safe, normal existence, and half watching for monsters to come for him.

Him and his family.

He also had an idea that Sam knew more than he was letting on. Something was off. Although Dean had known before his vesseling-up that Sam tended to focus on the job instead of the people, he wondered who this robot was.

Of course, Hell can twist anyone's head. Make them different than what they were before. Dean still had nightmares about his tenure there. And he was just in regular Hell. That had to be nothing compared to what Lucifer's cage was.

So, how'd he get out?

He hadn't talked to Cas in a year. He wondered if the angel had pulled him out. And neglected to tell him.

But, Sam had his family to go to. Dean wasn't sure how to think of that. At least Sam wasn't alone in the world. Even if they weren't exactly Dean's bottle of beer, at least Sam hooked up with family.

Family…

He knew Lisa had told him what he wanted to hear at Bobby's—that it wasn't a mistake for him to come to her and Ben. She had to be lying. He knew she didn't like to be pulled out of her sleep with his nightmares. But, she helped him more than she would probably ever know. Her and Ben.

They were his family now. He had to protect them. Particularly since he wasn't quite convinced his hallucination about Yellow Eyes wasn't trying to tell him something. He had the know-how to protect them. He wouldn't fail them. He wouldn't let them down.

Still, hunting again gave him a rush that he had been missing. He had forgotten that it was exciting. When he wasn't being poisoned by the Djinn.

Stupid Djinns.

It would have been nice to get to know his cousins better. Maybe spend some time with his grandfather. When Dean had met him, he really respected the man. It also would have been good to be around family again, getting to know them, trying to find out why they rubbed him the wrong way.

Except… he had another family now. One that needed him to protect them.

"Bye, Sammy,' he whispered and walked to his pickup. He needed to pick up Lisa and Ben from Bobby's.

He wondered if he would ever hear from Sam again. At least, he was still alive.

Because Dean had half a mind to hunt him down and kill him for keeping that fact from him for a year.

End.

A/N: Not good. This was more of an exercise. I didn't care much for the premiere. It just felt off to me. So, this is probably very off too. I'm sorry.

But, at least I have all of your awesome reviews for "Soup and Chocolate." I love you guys for them!


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